New coach Greg Cooper brings wealth of knowledge to Warriors

HERRIMAN — The positive momentum the Utah Warriors garnered on the tail-end of an otherwise frustrating 2022 season has continued into the offseason.

On Wednesday, Warrior team officials announced the hiring of Greg Cooper as the team’s head coach, a position that was left vacant following the dismissal of Shawn Pittman midway through the past season.

To say Cooper brings with him a wealth of experience certainly wouldn’t be an understatement, considering the New Zealand native’s resume.

Welcome to Utah, Coach Greg Cooper!#ForTheNation

— Utah Warriors Rugby (@utwarriorsrugby) July 20, 2022

Cooper played professional rugby from 1986-1998, which included playing for the All-Blacks from 1986-1992. He then entered the coaching ranks in 2001, and has coached all over the world since, taking him from New Zealand, France and then to Japan where he was instrumental in elevating the Mitsubishi Dynaboars to Japan’s top classification for the first time in club history.

“Greg is bringing a diverse wealth of global experience to our rugby operation, which will benefit the team and organization,” said Warriors’ General Manager Brandon Sparks. “His coaching style and personality will lend itself to our development focused mindset and we are eager to see his contributions to our team and community as we turn Utah into the epicenter of North American rugby.”

He also immediately gives Utah the most experienced coach in all of Major League Rugby, which should prove a huge benefit for a club that went without a head coach for the latter half of the 2022 season.

“Greg’s experience at the highest levels of professional rugby as both a coach and player ensures that the Utah Warriors are in the most capable coaching hands in the MLR,” said Warriors’ CEO Kimball Kjar. “Not only does Greg’s leadership and success speak for itself, but his ability to work in dynamic environments shows he and his teams can succeed no matter the situation. Warriors Nation is going to love Greg and we’re very excited to have someone of his character and experience added to the Warriors family.”

As for Cooper, he’s excited for the opportunity, and has learned quite a bit about the team he’s set to inherit through the interview process, and even a bit before then. Through viewing game film, he became impressed with many of the parts already in place, hoping to add his wealth of experience in fine-tuning the apparent strengths already inherent.

“For me, it’s a real honor to be here,” Cooper said. “This organization has some very strong foundations. So, with the foundation there I’m just really excited about the opportunity to build on that success.”

Watch Greg Cooper’s introductory Press Conference!

Watch: https://t.co/xpabarxzXl#ForTheNation

— Utah Warriors Rugby (@utwarriorsrugby) July 20, 2022

The goal moving forward will be to become a perennial contender that qualifies for the playoffs year-in and year-out. It’s the type of goal Cooper believes is clearly within grasp, which was apparent to him reviewing game film and with his discussions with both Kjar and Sparks.

As Warriors forward Paul Mullen, Wednesday’s introduction was the first he’d heard of his new coach and came away from the press conference excited for the team’s future.

“Whatever we were going through last year, he’s seen it in his time, probably 10 times over,” Mullen said. “So just to know that we now have a guy who has been through what he has — it’s exciting and I can’t wait to learn from him and to get it going.”

Brandon Gurney is the Utah Warriors Team Reporter. With nearly two decades of experience covering BYU Football in print and on radio, Gurney brings a wealth of experience to the Utah Warriors beat. You can read all of Gurney’s stories on the Utah Warriors throughout the 2022 Season at warriorsrugby.com